Former Sara Lee CFO Theo De Kool Takes Loss on Sale of Lincoln Park Home

By Dennis Rodkin

Published June 10, 2010

LINCOLN PARKLIST PRICE: $2,195,000SALE PRICE: $2,012,500

Theo de Kool, until late last year the chief financial officer at Sara Lee, has sold his 19th-century Lincoln Park row house for $2,012,500. He and his wife, Nanette Wartenbergh, paid $2.325 million for the 13-room home in 2007—which means the couple took a 13 percent loss on the recent sale. What’s more, the 122-year-old row house had lately undergone a renovation, says Joanne Nemerovski, who was the couple’s agent when they sold the place this spring.

The red-brick row house with a high first floor sits among a cluster of picturesque older homes on a tree-lined stretch of Fullerton Parkway. Nevertheless, Nemerovski says, the street “seemed too busy” for some potential buyers. But this home mitigates that with its unusually deep lot—175 feet, compared with the standard 125. “You have an awesome, quiet [rear] yard that reaches far back,” Nemerovski says.

De Kool joined a Dutch branch of the Downers Grove–based Sara Lee in 1990 and had served as the company’s CFO since 2002. He became CFO of Univeg, a Belgium-based group of fresh produce and flower companies, in March. I could not reach de Kool or Wartenbergh for comment, and Nemerovski would not comment on the sellers or the loss they took on the house.